Union Flag, John Lewis Oxford Street

A feature of Jubilee and Olympic year has been the appearance of the Union Flag in many guises - notably with the colours changed. It seemed something that this was a trend worth recognising.

One dramatic appearance of the Union Flay is to celebrate the Olympics in gigantic form on the outside of John Lewis, Oxford Street. A store with which I am closely associated.

john Lewis leased a shop in Oxford Street in 1864, and sold ribbons and haberdashery. He expanded the store and the range of items and ran it for many years. On his death in 1926, the shop devolved to his son Spedan Lewis who had turned round the failing Peter Jones store in Sloane Square with radical ideas of democratically involving the workforce in the business. In 1929 Spedan Lewis set up the Partnership which today runs John Lewis and Waitrose.

Spedan Lewis extended Oxford Street, but on 18 September 1940 and old bomb fell on the store, which burned for a day and a half. The business continued to trade from what survived and its other branches.

The current store was opened in 1960 after r6 years of rebuilding. It too has been refurbished.

It is of course a Great British institution with a unique democratic constitution at this scale of business - and anything but a past empire!